Farmers have been advised to be wary of assuming they have a successor in place without having that conversation with family.

Philip O'Connor, the head of farm support for accounting and professional services firm ifac, warned that a succession plan that hasn't been discussed with anyone "is not really a plan".

O'Connor was speaking to Agriland after the publication of the ifac Irish Farm Report this week.

Speaking in detail on the issue of succession, O'Connor noted that, while statistics around farm succession and generational renewal are not moving significantly, the interest in the issue among farmers is.

"The farming population is getting older, so we’re definitely seeing more people coming into us in ifac talking about it, which is definitely a positive. Will we be sitting here in two to three years time and the number of farmers under 35 has doubled or tripled, I don’t know," he said.

O'Connor said that arrangements like registered farm partnerships and collaborative farming will need to become more widespread as part of addressing the generational renewal issue.

"When we delved into our stats about the number of people who had a successor who were in a partnership, it was over half of them," he said.

"In ifac we’re a fan of that, the registered farm partnership model as a stepping stone into succession, as in your son or daughter or niece of nephew, or whoever your chosen one, is coming home farming," O'Connor added.

However, situations in which there is no successor identified might be suitable to a collaborative farming approach, the ifac representative noted.

"Where it does get a little bit more problematic is when you have a farm and no one wants to farm. The area we’re trying to do on that - Ifac are doing, I know the co-ops are pushing hard on it as well - is what we call collaborative farming," he said.

O'Connor said that Irish farming will have to see more of these stepping stones to farm succession.

"The structure is slightly irrelevant, whether it's registered farm partnerships, share farming, share milking...the landowner and the farmer doesn't necessarily have to be the same person, and we probably need to see more of that," he said.

"We’re definitely seeing it more in ifac, we’re definitely seeing more talk about it," he added, although he noted "it's still a minority sport".

O'Connor said that, for many farmers, the choice is "either I have a son or daughter, or I'm going to lease it out", and that he would hope to see more alternative arrangements, such as collaborative farming.

Speaking with successors

The ifac representative noted the importance of farmers making sure they have a conversation with a potential successor, rather than assuming that person has taking over the farm in mind.

"I would do discussion groups and I'd say how many farmers have a successor in mind or have a possible successor. A third of the room would put up their hand. And how many of ye have actually discussed it with you successor, and most of the hands would go down," O'Connor said.

"It’s that you’ve had a conversation with your family, and there is a rough plan in place - and plans can change - but in other words there’s been a conversation, [the potential successor] wants to come home, [he or she] is interested in farming; that is the start of a succession plan," he added.

"A succession plan could take 10 years to implement. There's nothing wrong with that... But it's started, you've spoken to your solicitor, your accountant, your [farm] advisor," O'Connor said.

"A succession plan in your head you haven't discussed with anyone is not really a plan," he noted.